(Brooks DuBose/ For The Diamondback)
College Park has always jokingly been known as a pizza town. Last year UMD students had eight different places to choose from, seven of those being late night pizza places. The three main places were Pizza Kingdom, where you can get your jumbo slice, Slices, that had different crazy toppings, and Pizza Mart, which was always there when the other two were too crowded and had exceptional mozzarella sticks. Over the summer The Diamondback reported that the last two pizza places mentioned were closing down; this shocked everyone.
“I was so upset about both of them closing,” Olivia Chin, junior international relations major said, “because of the buffalo chicken pizza at Slices and the mozzarella sticks at Pizza Mart, so I am very emo about it.”
“OMG, Pizza Mart was my home, when Pizza Mart closed my group chat went wild, we said a prayer,” Maria Arrazola, a sophomore nursing major said.
Some students simply couldn’t care less about the closings, senior Allison Hannahs, an environmental science & technology major is one of them.
“I do not care that Pizza Mart and Slices closed because Pizza Mart was garbage, they were a sad excuse of a pizza place,” Hannahs said. “Slices, I never actually wanted to go there I would only go for the people that I was with. I get that is why people are upset because they had a nice variety of pizza, so that is kind of a shame.”
Now that two of the prominent “late night eats” are gone, where are students eating now? I asked where their new favorite locations are.
A new front-runner that is getting a lot more business is Subway. The Subway on Route 1 is open for 24 hours and was last year as well, but it didn’t have the kind of business it is getting now.
“Subway is the unexpected, but delightful experience. Like when I think late night food…never think Subway, but they’re always open” Claudia Trauger, a junior marketing, and management major said.
“My place to go to now is Subway, Arrazola said.
“I go there with my friend like three times a week. Usually from 2:30 to 3:00 a.m. and there is always a great crowd in there. We walk in and we do a head nod with the workers because the same boys work every night.”
Another location that is under the radar is Marathon Deli. Marathon Deli is open till 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday, allowing more variety of food to be available to students.
(Marathon Deli’s Facebook)
“Marathon Deli has late night deals, their fries are only $3, and they play bumpin’ music,” Trauger said.
“Marathon is fire, one of the best things that have ever happened to College Park since whatever those places were called closed,” junior Brenna Fritzsche a marketing and supply chain double major said.
“Honestly though you can also never go wrong with Jimmy John’s.”
And for some Pizza Kingdom is still their go-to location.
(Tripadvisor)
“I am a big day one supporter of Pizza Kingdom,” Hannahs said.
It seems like students are still able to satisfy their late-night cravings and are excited to see what the future holds for late night food options in College Park.